Ship Wreck

Some of my projects get done in a few minutes, some take half a century. I took these pictures in 1975 with the idea of doing a mosaic . I worked on a lot of them in Vietnam, but this was different. I didn't know I would come with in a hair of dying to get my shot. I was perched with a crowd of other photographers photographing the surfers using the currents running around this storm wrecked ship. I bent over to change film, and a friendly golden retriever jumped up on me to say hello. I lost my balance and started to fall backwards twenty feet onto the jagged rocks. I desperately grabbed the dogs collar. He got frightened and backed up. He saved me. I hadn't been that scared since Viet Nam. The dogs owner was white faced with shock. I told him everything was alright. After a little coaxing's The retriever and I became good friends, but after that incident. I never lost the vigilance I learned in the combat zone.